All posts tagged OMB

In division, there may be strength. Or so says the the White House‘s budget chief in assessing the chances of a deal to roll back across-the-board spending curbs known as the sequester.

The split within the Republican Party over adhering to caps on military spending boosts the odds of striking a deal with Democrats to lift the sequester, said Shaun Donovan, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, in an interview Thursday. Read More »

Shaun Donovan, the director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, criticized the push by House Republican leaders to require congressional budget analysts to estimate growth boosts from tax cuts and other legislative changes. Read More »

The White House is expected to nominateShaun Donovan, current secretary of Department of Housing and Urban Development, to be the next director of the Office of Management and Budget. If picked, he’d have to be confirmed by the Senate, but the low-profile role has a number of challenges. Here are a few.

1) The budget. The budget wars have quieted, after a temporary truce earlier this year that funded government operations through September. But, even though neither party anticipates another shutdown later this year, Congress will still need to pass a law (or laws) to pay the government’s bills beginning in October. The White House could allow Congress to negotiate this spending bill, or the OMB chief could become directly involved. Read More »

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would return nearly twice the amount of money they received from the U.S. Treasury if the current bailout arrangement isn’t changed over the next decade, according to the White House budget office.

By the end of March, the two mortgage-finance companies that were seized by the U.S. in 2008 will have returned $202.9 billion in dividend payments, after receiving $187.5 billion in federal support between 2008 and 2011. The budget projections released Monday by the White House Office of Management and Budget show that the companies could return an additional $163.8 billion through the 2024 fiscal year if the bailout arrangement remains in place. Read More »

The Senate advanced a budget bill Tuesday that would slash employee compensation costs that contractors can charge to the federal government.

Under current law, the compensation cap is set at $950,000 for each contract, and the Senate measure would nearly halve that to $487,000. The cap applies to all defense contractor employees, but just the top five executives for civilian contractors.

The cap has soared since it was first used in 1998, and the Obama administration and a bipartisan group of legislators have long criticized the practice for allowing defense contractors to pay sky-high salaries with taxpayer money. Companies say they need to offer hefty compensation packages to attract top talent and stay competitive. Read More »

The White House on Thursday said the partial government shutdown forced the administration to pay about $2 billion to employees who weren’t working and led to $500 million in lost visitor spending at U.S. national parks.

In a new report, the Obama administration detailed how the 16-day shutdown in October harmed the economy and temporarily shuttered an array of government services. For instance, more than 2 million liters of U.S. beer, wine and liquor were left sitting at ports and Alaska’s famed crabbing season was delayed by several days.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said “one thing that did come out of the shutdown was a greater appreciation” for all the government does… Read More »

Adding insult to injury? A group of 21 Republican senators urged the Office of Management and Budget not to approve any regulations that would provide a special “carve out” to union-sponsored health plans under the Affordable Care Act.

In a blow for unions, the White House already said late Friday that it can’t legally make the primary change unions want to the new health-care law. For months, unions have been warning that the law could cause millions of their members who get health insurance under multiemployer plans to lose their coverage.

To support its conclusion, the White House cited a Treasury Department determination that there was no legal way to adjust tax treatment to make the change. But the 21 senators remain suspicious that the administration will try to find another way to satisfy unions’ main request… Read More »

Back in March, The Wall Street Journal’s Damian Paletta profiledDaniel Werfel – the newly named acting commissioner of the IRS — focusing on his role in instructing the government how to deal with the sequester’s $85 billion in budget cuts.

Here are some highlights from the profile:

Known in the White House as “Danny,” Mr. Werfel graduated from Cornell University, earned a master's degree in public policy from Duke University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina. His first 12 years in the federal government were split between jobs at OMB and two years as a trial attorney in the civil-rights division at the Justice Department. Read More »

President Barack Obama’s pick to head the White House budget office, who will likely play a key role in any budget negotiations between the White House and congressional Republicans, looks set to cruise through the confirmation process.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell was confirmed by voice votes by two different Senate panels on Wednesday, and is expected to face a vote by the full Senate soon, though no date has been set. Read More »

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